Mid-February Deluge

A slow moving front brought around a month’s worth of rain to the island in under 24hours. Starting just before 9pm on February 18th with rounds of gusty showers and thunderstorms dumping a quick 0.75-1.50″ of rain, then followed by moderate steady rain with embedded areas of heavy rain and occasional thunder. Rain totals over the 18th and 19th were widespread 3-5″ and resulted in flooding of the typical low-lying/poor drainage flood areas. The 4.19″ of rain that fell on the 18th and 19th made it the second wettest consecutive two-day period in February, behind Feb 9th-10th 1972 when 4.29″ fell. For comparison, in the climate period 1981-2010, February saw an average of 4.87″ of rain for the entire month.

Cooler air filtered in behind the front as rain slowly tapered off in the afternoon on the 19th. This led to mostly cloudy to overcast skies and cool weather for 20th to 21st as high temperatures topped out 60-65ºF. Another slow warm up is expected through Wednesday when temperatures recover to near 70ºF. Chances for rain exist for Tuesday, Wednesday and late on Thursday and should help make for an overall wet February. Below are some of the rainstorm totals (Feb 18th – Feb 19th) from around the island that seem legitimate from Wunderground‘s Personal Weather Station network.